OLC4O, Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course

Course Outline

Course Title: Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course
Course Code:
OLC4O
Grade: 12
Course Type: Open 
Credit Value: 1.0
Prerequisite: Students who have been eligible to write the OSSLT at least twice and who have been unsuccessful at least once are eligible to take the course. (Students who have already met the literacy requirement for graduation may be eligible to take the course under special circumstances, at the discretion of the principal).
Curriculum Policy Document: English – The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC). The Ontario Curriculum, Grade 12, 2003
Course Developer: Toronto eLearning School
Department: English
Department Head: Erin Weir, B.A.(Hon), B.Ed., OCT
Developed Date: 2019  
Most Recent Revised Date: 2020

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Course Description

This OLC4O – Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course is designed to help students acquire and demonstrate the cross-curricular literacy skills that are evaluated by the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Students who complete the course successfully will meet the provincial literacy requirement for graduation. Students will read a variety of informational, narrative, and graphic texts and will produce a variety of forms of writing, including summaries, information paragraphs, opinion pieces, and news reports. Students will also maintain and manage a portfolio containing a record of their reading experiences and samples of their writing.

Unit Titles and Descriptions Time
1 Informational Texts and the Writing Process
This unit will focus on informational texts. Students will engage in various reading strategies to help them make meaning of informational texts. They will also practice answering questions on informational texts, including multiple choice and short answer. Lastly, students will use the writing process to write their own informational text.
28 hours
2 Narrative Texts and Summary Writing
This unit will focus on different types of narrative texts. Students will use various reading strategies to increase their understanding of narrative texts. Students will learn how to summarize a text, using narratives texts as an example.
27 hours
3 Graphic Texts and News Report Writing
In this unit, students will learn strategies to analyze graphic texts. They will use and extend this knowledge to writing a news report based on an image and a headline.
27 hours
Review and Assessments
  Four Review Lessons (1 per unit) 6 hours
  Mid Term Assignment 8hours
  Final Assignment 12 hours
  Final Exam 2 hours
  Total 110 hours


Overall Expectations: OLC4O

Teaching / Learning Strategies:

Assessment and Evaluation:

Example of an Assessment Rubric for an Assignment in this Course:

The Final Grade

The Report Card

Antidiscrimination Education in the English Program

Achievement Chart: Overall

Achievement Chart – Ontario Secondary School Literacy, Grade 12

Resources required by students

Program Planning Considerations for English

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